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Werner Theodor Otto Forßmann, (August 29, 1904
– June 1, 1979) was a physician from Germany who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for developing a
procedure that allowed for the catheterization of the heart.

Contents

Life

Forßmann was born in Berlin
on August 29, 1904. Upon graduating from Askanische Gymnasium, he
entered the University of
Berlin to study medicine, passing the State Examination in
1929.[1]

He hypothesized that a catheter could be inserted directly into
the heart, for such applications as directly delivering drugs,
injecting radiopaque
dyes, or measuring blood pressure. The fear at the time was that
such an intrusion into the heart would be fatal.[2]
In order to prove his point, he decided to try the experiment on
himself.

In 1929, while working in Eberswalde, he performed the first human cardiac catheterization. He
ignored his department chief and tied his assistant to an operating
table.[3]
Then, he anesthetized his own lower arm and inserted a cannula into his antecubital
vein, threading it 65 cm all the way to his heart.[1]
Afterwards, he walked some distance to the X-ray department to
photograph the catheter which was now lying in his right
atrium.

The head clinician at Eberswalde, recognizing Werner's
discovery, created an unpaid position for him at the Berliner Charité Hospital,
working under Ferdinand Sauerbruch. Though, once
Sauerbruch saw his paper, he was thrown out of the hospital.
Sauerbruch commented, "You certainly can't begin surgery in that
manner".[4]
Facing such disciplinary action for self-experimentation, he was
forced to quit cardiology and take up urology.[2]

He left to work at City Hospital at Mainz. And then, went to
study urology under Karl Heusch at the Rudolf Virchow Hospital in
Berlin. Later, he was
appointed Chief of the Surgical Clinic at both the City Hospital at
Dresden-Friedrichstadt and the Robert Koch Hospital in Berlin.[1]

In 1933, he married Dr. Elsbet Engel, a specialist in
urology.

At the start of World War II, he became a medical officer.
In the course of his service, he rose to the rank of Sergeant-Major, until he was captured and
put into a POW camp. Upon his release, in 1945, he
worked as a lumberjack and then as a country doctor in Schwarzwald with his wife. In 1950, he
began practicing as urologist in Bad Kreuznach[1][2]

After winning the Nobel Prize, he was given the position of
Honorary Professor of Surgery and Urology at the University
of Mainz.[1]

Later, in 1954, he was given the Leibniz Medal of the German
Academy of Sciences. And, in 1961, he became an HonoraryProfessor at the National University of
Cordoba.[1].
In 1962, he became a member of the Executive Board of the German
Surgical Society. He also became a member of the American College of
Chest Physicians, honorary member of the Swedish Society of
Cardiology, the German Society of Urology, and the German Child
Welfare Association.[1]

He and Elsbet had six children: Klaus Forssmann in 1934, Knut
Forssmann in 1936, Jörg Forssmann in 1938, Wolf Forssmann in 1939
(who was first to isolate the atrial natriuretic peptide), Bernd
Forssmann in 1940 (who helped develop the first clinical lithotriptor), and Renate Forssmann in
1943.[1][2]

"[Münchener Medizinische
Wochenschrift/20 March 1931 Contrast representation of the cavities
of the living right half of the heart by Werner Forssmann,
Eberswalde]". MMW, Münchener medizinische Wochenschrift120 (14): 489. April 1978. PMID347275.